If 6 liters of fat is removed, how many lbs of weight is that?

Doctor Answers 9

One liter of fat is about 2 pounds

January 13th, 2014

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You need to know how much of the 6 liters is fat and how much is fluid that the surgeon injected. Surgeons inject different volumes of fluid, some more ("tumescent"), some less ("superwet"). If your surgeon injects large amounts it is likely that the volume removed will also contain a lot of fluid. This makes the volume higher than if you are just measuring fat. I use the superwet technique. Only about 10% of the volume removed is fluid; the rest is all fat. One liter of fat weighs about 2 pounds. This means that you had about 12 pounds of fat removed (or less if there was a lot of fluid). That is a large amount of fat. It's not like just dropping your weight 12 pounds because this is subcutaneous fat in specific body areas. So it will probably look like you lost more than 12 pounds, once the swelling subsides. I included a link to this part of my website so you can look at results in patients with similar liposuction volumes.

How Much Does Aspirated Fat Weigh?

January 13th, 2014

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The aspirate removed during
liposuction consists of both fat and fluid. Initially it is mixed together. If
the aspirate is allowed to settle, it will separate into a fluid layer on the
bottom, and a fat layer on the top. The fluid layer consists mostly of some
portion of the wetting solution (saline i.v. fluid, lidocaine, and epinephrine)
that was injected, as well as a small amount of blood. The amount of fluid in
the aspirate may depend upon how much wetting solution was injected at the
beginning of the procedure. The more wetting solution injected, the more fluid
will likely be aspirated along with the fat. For me personally, I find that
about 10 to15% of the total volume of aspirate is fluid, and the rest is
aspirated fat.

What
ultimately matters is how much fat is removed. If your surgeon has communicated
the “total aspirate” as 6 L, then less than 6 L of fat has been removed. You
would need to know how much fluid was removed so you could calculate how much
fat was in the aspirate. If your surgeon was referring only to “aspirated fat”,
then it truly is 6 L.

Liposuction
is a body contouring operation and not a weight loss operation. Although
patients always want to know how much fat was removed, and how much that fat
weighs, patients do not usually experience large changes in body weight
following liposuction.

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January 13th, 2014

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1 liter of water is 2.2 pounds. The calculation is different with fat... however, it also depends on how much tumescent fluid was also removed during the procedure. So I generally average and tell my patients each liter is about 2 pounds of fat. So, 6 liters of fat is probably around 12 pounds. That is quite a lot!

Liposuction Is For Shape Not Weight

October 27th, 2016

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Six liters of fat will probably weigh between two to three pounds. However, when considering liposuction, you should think about shape and inches rather than pounds. Liposuction is not a weight-loss method. It is for removing stubborn fat that's resistant to diet and exercise. It is done to improve your shape and give you a more sculpted look. Please consult a board-certified dermatologist to find out if you are a candidate for liposuction or for a noninvasive fat-removal technique, such as CoolSculpting, Vanquish or Thermi.

Weight of Liposuction Fat Aspirate

January 13th, 2014

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While the 6 liters you are referring to is actually not pure fat but better described as fat aspirate (which is a combination of fat, tumescent fluid and blood), the general rule is that 1 liter of fat aspirate equals 2 lbs. (based on that 1 gallon of water = 8 lbs and there are roughly 3.8 Liters per gallon)

How much weight is 6 liters of fat?

January 13th, 2014

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First of all, let's make sure we are talking about the same thing: what comes OUT from liposuction is called aspirate. If the surgeon allows it to settle, there will be a fluid layer, and a fat layer. the fluid layer is mostly the fluid that we injected in (saline, lidocaine, epinephrine) as well as a little blood, so really that doesn't mean anything to you as a patient. The fat part is what really matters. So, you need to be careful if you are asking about 6 liters of aspirate, or 6 liters of fat. Assuming that you really mean 6 liters of fat, then that would be 14.4 pounds.

These answers are for educational purposes and should not be relied upon as
a substitute for medical advice you may receive from your physician. If you
have a medical emergency, please call 911. These answers do not constitute
or initiate a patient/doctor relationship.